


The Press

by FictionalWorldsAreExquisite



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Anxiety, Communication, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Gen, Light Angst, News Media, Press and Tabloids, i think calling it angst is a bit bold. it's not that bad., it's there. trust me, this isn't actually...that angsty despite the summary...i just suck at summaries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:02:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21997207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FictionalWorldsAreExquisite/pseuds/FictionalWorldsAreExquisite
Summary: Tony's been dealing with the press for his whole life and he doesn't pay much attention to it anymore, but then he spots an article that claims that Tony has hurt Peter. He finds other, similar articles and he feels the need to apologise for his apparent actions or inactions.Peter doesn't agree.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 20
Kudos: 231





	The Press

**Author's Note:**

> hello, this is a concept I was excited to write and I'm not sure if I'm s u p e r happy with the end result buuuut I did enjoy trying to write it so I think that counts for something
> 
> I might try write something for New Year's but if I don't and this is my last fic of the year I'm ok with that tbh,, I put a lot of effort into this one even if it isn't my favourite and I hope y'all like it!

The press was something that Tony Stark mostly ignored. His PR team would alert him if his or Stark Industries reputation was dropping and they’d direct his next actions so he never felt the need to seek it out himself. In the past, it was mainly bad press which was deserved but not something he cared about back then and he had no desire to seek it out now.

More recently, the press just wasn’t anything he’d benefit from looking at. Sometimes it was articles covering new product releases from Stark Industries or advances they’d made, which he already knew about because he was generally involved in the final stages if it was anything significant. 

Other times it was speculations on his relationship with Pepper because he was seen in the general vicinity of another woman, or occasionally a man depending on the news outlet (suddenly people being progressive made his life more difficult). He’d admit he gained amusement from it sometimes (especially when he didn’t know the person they were claiming he cheated on Pepper with) but it mostly earned an eye roll from him.

There seemed to be a collection of articles dedicated to insisting he was showing off his muscles and/or body when he stumbled out of the lab in a singlet, in broad daylight, after a 48-hour work binge to grab something to eat from down the road. Or when he went for a run. Basically, whenever he wore a singlet, he was fair game. Maybe if he was feeling particularly vain or requiring an ego boost he’d benefit from reading them, but they mostly oozed ridiculousness.

Then, of course, there were the analyses of comments he’d made. Those either went in a good or bad direction. The good was normally figuring out if a vague comment he’d made meant he’d be making an appearance at some awards show or gala, the bad was normally focused on viewing comments he’d made from a bad angle. Sometimes he did say something wrong, but it was generally the media twisting his words. Still, his PR team would alert him if he’d actually said something out of line or if something needed clarification so he had no need to read them.

Essentially, most of it wasn’t important, so he had no need to read it.

Except, ever since Peter had been introduced into the eyes of the press, Tony found himself skimming over articles to make sure nothing bad was being said. It was somewhat unavoidable but there were certain comments he could use to take articles down when they went too far. Logically he knew he didn’t have to since his hardworking PR team was keeping an eye out for that content specifically to scan and get taken down if possible, but this was something he was actually interested in keeping on top of.

It was on one particular evening when Tony was skimming the articles after dinner that a headline caught his eye.

_Tony Stark Hurts Intern Peter Parker_

If Tony knew anything about the media, it was that their headlines were almost always misleading. So as his finger hovered over it on his StarkPad, he figured it could just be about him shoving Peter playfully or giving him a too hard high five in view of the cameras. It wasn’t really ‘hurting’, barely counted, but obviously, that headline would get clicks so they’d push their limits.

Still, a part of him was always worried that one day he would _actually_ hurt Peter. He’d never do it purposefully but in their line of work, sometimes things went horribly wrong. This referred both to lab work and superhero work, whether it was Peter accidentally swinging in front of his repulsor blast or Peter shielding him from an explosive experiment Tony had messed up. Neither had actually happened but it was a hard anxiety to shake.

So he clicked on the article.

It showed a series of photographs first, getting straight to the point. Tony remembered the moment just by glancing at the pictures, they’d been at a restaurant and someone had tipped off the press while they’d been eating. Happy had texted Tony to let them know and he’d parked directly outside. Security had done their best to get them to the car safely but the press had pushed closer, breaking past them. Tony had grabbed Peter so he didn’t get separated and dragged him to the car.

As far as he could remember, Peter had been slightly shaken which Tony had considered understandable at the time but otherwise alright. He certainly hadn’t mentioned Tony injuring him, although Tony wondered if he actually would in that scenario.

Tony looked closer at the photos, there were five of them altogether. They went from showing Tony standing beside Peter to grabbing his intern’s wrist to the last three showing Peter’s reaction before disappearing into the car. 

Peter’s expression moved from looking somewhat overwhelmed by the people surrounding him to shock in the third picture, pain in the fourth, finally wearing a grimace in the last one. Tony looked at his hand grabbing Peter’s wrist and noted that it did seem kind of tight. He hadn’t thought it was _too_ tight at the time but maybe...well, he’d been more focused on getting Peter to the car than the strength he was using. Maybe he had messed up.

The caption of the photos said, ‘ _Tony Stark grabbing Peter Parker roughly, hurting him in the process and dragging him into the car_.’

The article just added slightly more detail, location, time, date and a description of events. Tony already knew most of it but he was suddenly hearing it from an outside view. The one thing he couldn’t remember was the strength of his grip, which was the point of the article and the reason why he was questioning himself.

He decided that he’d bring it up with Peter the next day since it was their lab afternoon. If he’d messed up, he’d apologise and consciously focus on never doing it again. Plus he’d ask the kid to tell him if he ever hurt him again. It wouldn’t _fix_ the situation, but it seemed to be the best first step.

That should’ve been it, but it spiralled from there. Tony couldn’t help but be curious to see what else he’d missed. He didn’t check _every_ article written about them and it seemed possible that maybe he’d messed up before and it’d been caught by the media. His PR team would normally alert him of things like that but only if any of them had blown up in popularity or seriousness. Maybe these hadn’t somehow.

He thought he was pretty in tune with the kid, treating him as best he could, but he’d been mistaken before. The other articles were easy enough to find once he looked for them.

_Tony Stark Makes Intern Cry_

The photos showed Tony gesturing wildly, mouth wide open in all photos and Peter looked close to crying. He wasn’t actually according to the photos, but his eyes were a bit watery. Tony remembered that, he’d gotten frustrated with the kid after a lab incident and started warning him. From his side of the story, he’d just seen Peter go quiet and apologise before they’d awkwardly continued on the conversation eventually.

He hadn’t realised Peter had taken it that hard, maybe he’d been too rough on the kid. He couldn’t remember exactly what he said but it should’ve just been a simple warning. Tony looked at his face in the photos. Maybe he’d gone too far. 

The article detailed how the reporter (sitting outside in a car) saw Tony’s change of attitude, followed by Peter turning to look out the window as he ‘ _blinked back tears_ ’ before continuing the talk. Tony wasn’t sure if that was true or not but he was worried. Without context, the rest of the article was a little harsh but Tony felt as though he’d still messed up.

_Tony Stark Neglects Intern_

Tony frowned at that title. He was a busy man and he’d definitely ignored the kid after the so-called Civil War for a bit which he’d apologised for, but he tried to always give the kid his full attention when possible.

He clicked on it and photos popped up, there was just two side by side this time. He remembered that outing, it was after Peter finished his exams and got his results back and Tony took him out to get gelato as a reward. Peter had insisted it wasn’t necessary but Tony was familiar with the whole, ‘they always get good grades so why would we reward them for what they always get’ attitude and wasn’t personally a fan. Peter had studied his ass off and Tony wasn’t about to not treat him for that.

They’d been interrupted by one of Tony’s business partners though. It wasn’t expected but considering the gelato place offered a higher level of privacy (though clearly not enough since they were photographed), it wasn’t the most surprising thing ever. Tony had politely engaged in conversation while trying to keep it short, as he remembered it.

He wasn’t sure neglect was the appropriate word though. It would’ve been ideal if they’d had the whole time to themselves and Tony probably should’ve turned the person away politely but it wasn’t so bad, right?

He paled when he saw the time stamps under the photos though. The first showed Peter just starting to eat his gelato with a smile at 4:03pm and the second showed Peter gazing sadly out the window at 4:27pm just as his business partner turned their back. The caption confirmed he’d been talking the whole time. 

He winced, shit, he’d really lost track of time there and he remembered assuming Peter had just eaten quickly when he turned back to the kid. That was definitely one he definitely owed Peter an apology for. He’d apologised at the time but it was only a quick apology because he’d assumed he hadn’t been talking that long. 

He had spent the rest of the night watching movies with Peter, ordering his favourite takeaway and snacks rather than working in the lab, however. No one had interrupted them then except for Pepper joining them but he’d still ruined the outing. That was on him.

_Tony Stark Cuts Intern Off Continuously_

Tony tilted his head when he clicked on it and saw the rough and slightly blurry phone photo. He remembered having lunch with the kid in that place but he had no idea what they’d been talking about. He also had no idea why he’d be cutting the kid off.

The reporter chose not to detail the conversation further than ‘Stark Industries talk’ which was probably a clever move to keep their article up. The PR team probably would’ve managed to have it taken down if it leaked too much information. On Peter’s side, the writer made sure they pointed out that they couldn’t inform readers of what he was saying because he didn’t get a chance to say it. They also made sure to point out how defeated Peter was gradually starting to look.

It was definitely rude on Tony’s behalf but probably not quite as bad as some of the other articles. He’d just make sure not to do it again, that’s all.

_Tony Stark Ignores Intern Crying_

Tony didn’t think he’d ignore Peter crying without a good reason, like a gun to his head, but he clicked on it anyway. The photos showed them walking down a street this time, quite a change of scenery, a series of photos taken one after the other showing Peter discreetly wiping his eyes while Tony stared straight ahead.

Tony turned his StarkPad off without even reading the article this time. He didn’t want to see any more of Peter looking upset. He hadn’t _ignored_ him though, he just genuinely hadn’t noticed him. Which wasn’t much better. 

He’d bookmarked all the articles for when Peter arrived tomorrow. Tony had...well, he seemed to have a lot to make up for. And he’d skipped over a bunch of smaller headlines that didn’t seem so severe, plus it only took a few articles before he stopped looking. But he’d do his best. He felt awful and didn’t want to lose Peter. He clearly needed to make himself seem more open to the boy so Peter could talk to him if he did something wrong.

\-------

Tony was standing behind the nearest bench to the door of the lab, StarkPad out in front of him, turned off. He’d placed a seat on his side and a seat on what would be Peter’s side to have this talk.

The living room had seemed too casual for a serious talk and standing had seemed a bit intense so sitting in the lab it was...with a bench between them so Tony could distance himself, physically and emotionally.

He knew Peter was about to bounce into his lab any minute now, chatting a mile a minute, grinning at the sight of him and it just made Tony feel worse. How much of it was an act? Or even worse, how much was Peter acting genuinely because it didn’t matter what Tony did because he was _Tony Stark_?

And, speaking of the devil, the elevator doors opened and Peter rushed out. He keyed in his code for the lab and walked in (because he’d long since learned his lesson about running in the lab), grinning when he caught sight of Tony. Tony shifted uncomfortably.

“Hey, Mr. Stark! In chemistry today, I had an idea for altering the formula of my web fluid and I really want to try it today, if that’s okay with you?”

Or maybe part of it was access to the lab. He’d take whatever he got from Tony if he got to keep utilising the lab since it would be a lot harder to work on his projects anywhere else.

Tony sighed, “kid. We’ve got to talk.”

Peter froze and paled, “but I haven’t done anything wrong lately, I don’t think.”

Tony quickly clarified himself, “no, it’s not about anything you’ve done. It’s about something I might have done that I want to apologise for.”

Peter frowned, “I don’t think you have anything to apologise for.”

Tony turned on the StarkPad and slid it over, first article open, not saying anything else. Of course Peter would say that if he was acting.

Peter walked over, grabbed it and pulled it closer, skim reading it for just a minute or two.

He looked up to face Tony, “wait, you’re worried about this? You didn’t _hurt_ me at all. I remember that and I never felt any pain from it. Is that it? Because you don’t have to apologise about that.”

Tony frowned, “Pete, your expression there. It seems like you’re in pain.”

“Yeah, but not from you. All that noise really made it hard for me with my enhanced hearing and the flashing lights hurt my eyes a lot. It was just really overwhelming. Seriously, your grip was tight but not painfully so.” Peter seemed genuine when he spoke.

Oh. Well that made sense, Tony supposed. “Alright, but promise to tell me if I’m ever hurting you.” He needed to be sure.

“Pinky promise.” Peter grinned and stuck his little finger out.

Tony stared a bit before deciding to stick his out and shake. Why not? He was a bit relieved with that explanation.

“Okay, but there are a few other things that...have come to my attention.”

Peter seemed to consider this. “I’m pretty sure you’ve never hurt me. I mean, I was kind of hurt when you took away my suit but that’s a whole other thing.” That was a whole other thing that Tony wasn’t willing to poke with a stick right now.

“It’s not just that. It’s other things.” Tony grabbed the StarkPad back and clicked on the next article.

Peter grabbed the StarkPad again and squinted at it, “ohhh, I remember that day. Man, those photos are embarrassing. My allergies were a mess and I didn’t want you to think I was crying when you were warning me because I was fine with the warning and I deserved it so I looked away to blink back the tears, not actual sad tears but allergy tears you know, but I think that just helped the photographer twist the situation.” Peter tilted his head. “You were giving me like, the politest warning in history, that headline is wayyy off,” he dragged out the y.

“Your _allergies_?” So _he_ didn’t make Peter cry at all?

“Yup.” Peter popped the p at the end. “They play up every so often and I normally forget to take an antihistamine in the morning because I don’t realise how bad they are until I’ve left the apartment. If you have any more of me crying, it was probably that.” Tony didn’t even know Peter struggled with that, he certainly hadn’t considered it.

Tony took the StarkPad and skipped forward to the last article he’d looked at last night, sliding it back without a word.

Peter screwed up his nose. “As if you’d ever ignore me. If I was crying and you knew, I’m pretty sure getting you away from me would be like the final boss fight on a video game, basically impossible. Oh god, that day was the worst! My allergies were so bad I actually had tears streaming down my face. I didn’t want you to see because then you’d be like,” Peter did a bad impression of Tony’s voice, “‘kiddo, why are you crying?’ and I’d be like, ‘I’m not! It’s just allergies!’ and you’d look at me suspiciously and probably take me off to the side to make sure nothing was wrong and it’s easier just to wipe the tears subtly. I didn’t _think_ anyone would be taking photos though.” Peter zoomed in on the photos for whatever reason while Tony considered this.

He was starting to get the impression that he’d fallen into the trap of believing the media’s twisted version of events when he shouldn’t have. He hadn’t done that in years, maybe not ever. Peter was clearly a weak spot. He knew better but apparently, he’d been a little blinded by worry.

Nevertheless, he scrolled back to the ‘neglect’ article and turned it around for Peter to see. “As far as I can tell, kid, I genuinely did mess up that time. I didn’t realise I’d been talking for so long. At least let me apologise for that.”

Peter shrugged, “I mean, you did talk for a while but it was _kind of_ interesting to listen to. Plus, you know loads of people, you take me out loads and it barely ever happens. I didn’t have a problem with it.” This kid was too good.

“Yeah but that was supposed to be a treat for you after your exam results. It was more special than a casual lunch. Plus, you definitely look sad in that second photo.”

Peter looked at the photo then back at Tony. “Okay, sure, but then you spent the whole afternoon _and_ evening with me, watching what I wanted to and getting any food I wanted. That was pretty awesome. Also, to be honest, I looked sad because that gelato was...awful, to put it bluntly. Remember how you dared me to try some weird flavours because it was a fancy private place? God, I regretted that. I thought I told you later. Really saddening.” Now the kid was just being dramatic.

The memory of them driving back to the tower later rushed back into Tony’s mind and he _did_ suddenly remember Peter describing in great depth how awful the ice cream was. Peter was dramatic, of course he was looking out the window sadly like he was in a movie or something.

“Fine, but next time kick me under the table when I hit the five-minute mark of talking.” Tony would cut off whatever was being said and ignore the person until they left once Peter kicked him. That would work.

“Kick you like, nudge you and give you a look, or kick you like, hard enough to break a bone so you have to drop the conversation and leave for the nearest hospital immediately?”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Peter. The first. Oh, wait, I’ll give you a list of names later of people you should do the second for. Don’t even wait five minutes. Feel free to go for their shins too.” There weren’t _too_ many people in that category so he wouldn’t become a regular at the hospital but it left the potential for it to actually happen. Which was mildly frightening now that he thought about it. He liked being able to walk.

“Noted. Are we done here now?” Peter rocked back in his chair, attention wandering.

“There’s one more article and I just can’t seem to remember what was going on there. But it seemed like I was being rude at the very least so-”

Peter’s chair clattered back down as Peter cut him off, “nope! You don’t get to apologise until I deem it not bullshit and it’s probably bullshit so you don’t get to apologise at all.”

Tony smiled slightly, “I thought I was the one that told you not to apologise?”

Peter grinned, “times have changed! Anyway, give me.” Peter made grabby hands.

Tony clicked onto the only other article he hadn’t shown Peter.

Peter frowned. “You don’t remember this?” Well, that didn’t seem like a good start.

“Well, I remember having lunch there. Or, I remember walking in at least. But not what was going on. Do you remember?” Should he remember this?

“Uh, yeah. You were panicking, like, freaking out. In fact, maybe you were having some kind of full-on panic attack there, but I wasn’t sure at the time. You weren’t really listening to anything I tried to say to calm you down so I ended up texting Happy to come get us because you just kept talking.”

“Oh. Sorry, Peter.” The time gap in his memory probably should’ve indicated that, he tended to black out during panic attacks sometimes so he didn’t really remember much but he hadn’t even considered that. It was nothing Peter should be exposed to either although luckily it just manifested in continuous talking, that was better than a lot of attacks he’d had.

“You can’t apologise for something you can’t control!”

Tony smiled tiredly, “I just did.” He really was tired. Thinking about this had kept him up most of the night and now that the worry was gone, the exhaustion hit.

“Soo…” Peter moved on, “since when do you listen to the media anyway?”

Tony didn’t say anything for a bit. He didn’t. He shouldn’t have. His PR team didn’t say anything, Pepper didn’t say anything, they were obscure articles, certainly not by reputable sources _and_ by sources that had a history of writing against him. Tony wasn’t an idiot, he knew how to judge the reliability of internet sources and those were terrible ones. He should’ve just moved on.

But it was _Peter_. If there was even a small chance that anything they said was true...well, he wasn’t about to ignore that. It came down to not knowing Peter long enough to be sure that he’d actually call Tony out on his actions if they were harmful. It also came down to Tony _never_ wanting to do wrong to him.

He considered his answer. He could brush Peter off, say he was just checking. But that didn’t feel right for once, for once he felt the need to directly address the issue.

“Pete...I don’t want to hurt you. Emotionally, physically, in any way. And I just need to be sure that I’m not. You’ve never come up to me to bring up a problem with something I’ve done. Sure, you’ve gotten mad at me before, but you’ve never asked me to correct my actions, to not do something. I can’t be sure that you actually _will_. So I just...worry.” Tony shifted uncomfortably and clasped his hands together. That was a little too upfront for him.

Peter frowned. “I hate that you put milk in before cereal.”

Tony snorted, caught off guard. “Thanks, kid, but that’s not quite what I meant.”

“One time you put cellotape on me and when I took it off, it took one arm hair off with it and that _kind of_ hurt.” Peter seemed determined to make a point.

Tony rolled his eyes and got up, walking around the bench to lean on it, facing Peter. “I mean the more serious things, kid. You got a paper cut when I handed you a piece of paper one time and would’ve willingly done a press conference to announce it and blame me. I know you’ll bring that stuff up. It’s the stuff you think I might get annoyed or mad at, or brush off as stupid.”

Peter quietened. “I guess that would be harder. But I’ll promise to try! And you can text me any articles you see and I’ll just call bullshit on them! Or say they’re true and make you panic into flying to my location to apologise in person.”

Tony roughed up Peter’s hair playfully, “as if I’d do that, I’d call you.”

Peter stared up at him, unimpressed.

“I’d call you _first_. Maybe like, mid-flight. FRIDAY? Remind me to call him before leaving if that ever happens?” Peter might just know him better than he knew himself.

“Yes, Sir.”

Peter rolled his eyes. “I’ll make sure to figure out the best glass repair people in my area.”

“I won’t break in through your window!”

Peter stared at him again.

Tony conceded, “only if it’s like...majorly bad. A ten on the scale.”

Peter nodded and got up. “So, is everything good?”

“Everything’s good, kid. You mentioned wanting to try something with your web fluid?” 

“Oh yeah!” Peter started to walk over to his bench before turning back around to hug Tony. 

Tony wasn’t expecting it and looked down at the top of his head, shocked, before slowly returning the hug. It was nice after everything. “What’s this for?” He asked quietly.

Peter pulled back and grinned at him cheekily, “hug for the worrywart!”

Tony spluttered and tried to grab at him but Peter danced out of reach, “I am _not_ a worrywart! Peter! Get back here!”

Peter laughed happily and Tony gave up on the spot, letting him get away with it. There was very little better than hearing that noise. Tony watched fondly as he slipped in his headphones and immediately zoned into writing notes down. 

God, he really needed a nap or something though.

**Author's Note:**

> the ending had me like hhhhhhhhhh. I originally wrote 700 words for the first part, then I rewrote it and suddenly there was 2000 and I didn't want that to overpower the resolution, you know? But I also didn't want to d r a g the ending out. I wanted Tony to go from i have f u c k e d up to i'm beginning to think i fell into a media trap gradually and I think maybe the shift into more lightheartedness shows that m a y b e. I gave it a try.
> 
> With this story I was like Tony's been dealing with the media essentially since he was born so it's like, whatever, who cares, but I wanted to explore the anxiety that might come up when the media is suddenly like hey! you're treating your new intern badly! Because normally he'd shrug it off but if there's a CHANCE with Peter,, like he isn't at the point in their relationship where he can be certain it's a lie, therefore, anxiety spiral. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it :) also please do tell me if this counts as angst lmao i don't think it does but it's also hard to tell because i wrote it, i'll change the tags if it really isn't
> 
> tumblr is fictional-worlds-are-exquisite


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